Die Geburt des Archivs: Eine Wissensgeschichte

At the beginning of the early modern period, the idea of storing documents in a fixed location gained popularity in Europe. Yet the history of the archive is not only one of preservation: archives are also places of destruction, where memory is lost. As document collections grew, so did the problems associated with organizing, managing, and accessing them, until not only the archive, but also the figure of the archivist, stepped into view.

• Explores the major role played by the archive in the history of our knowledge society